


Upon the stars (FFXIVWrite2020 Day 25 - Wish)

by Ivelia



Series: FFXIV Write 2020 [25]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gen, Patch 5.3: Reflections in Crystal Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:40:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26665318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivelia/pseuds/Ivelia
Summary: Part of my attempt for #FFXIVWrite2020 - September 25 (Day 25 - Wish)Sometimes, only once something is lost, can one understand its true worthSpoilers for Patch 5.3 + Short stories, please read at your own discretion!
Series: FFXIV Write 2020 [25]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1906951
Kudos: 1





	Upon the stars (FFXIVWrite2020 Day 25 - Wish)

\- “And we’re still up in the middle of the night for... this?” As expected, his new functions as  _ Emet-Selch, the Architect _ made him busier than ever, and he would have very much appreciated being comfortably resting in his own abode, instead of being up and running around so late with these two clowns for  _ this. _ He sighed as yet another shooting star passed through the peaceful night sky of Amaurot.

\- “Don’t be such a spoilsport, Hades. I think it’s actually quite pretty~” As usual, nothing, not even the late hour, or the cold wind whipping the highest point of the city could remove the cheer from Hythlodaeus’ voice, or the smile from his face. Though, it might have actually been frozen on.

\- “Yup, yup, it is! Don’t tell me, you’d rather be sleeping?” A rather accusatory voice chimed in, chuckling at the fleeting crispation of his face as her words hit their mark, adding smugly “Bullseye.” They’d known each other for quite a long time, after all. “Come on, it’s not often that I’m stopping by…” True. Holding the current seat of Azem, she’d only stay in Amaurot proper for delivering summary reports on her activities, almost fleeing from the city soon after under the censure of her peers from the Convocation at her unconventional methods. Probably, in a few days at most, she’d be gone again.

\- “Ah, this reminds me…” A thought suddenly came back to her mind “I heard from the locals in that place, that if you see a shooting star, you should make a wish, and it’ll come true…” She looked up to the sky, wistfully, asking her friends “Say, what would you wish for?”

\- “Right now, I’d wish for a cup of that hot mulled wine you brought last time~” It was kinda cold up there, after all. “And you, Hades?”

\- “Why would I tell you?” What nonsense. Wish granting stars? Surely they wouldn’t believe these childish legends…? Anyway, he had nothing he wished for really. Although these two fumbling idiots were running him ragged, and work was a bit tiring at times, he was pretty content with this current life...  


\- “Ah, that’s good! They say that actually it won’t work if you don’t keep your wish secret… Oops, sorry for your wine, Hythlo~”

\- “Eeeeee~h?! Oh well, no worries! We could actually borrow and combine some concepts to mimic this, then we’d have as many wishes as we want~” He looked even more cheerful at this terrible idea “We actually have some in stock that could do the trick~”

Hades suddenly felt the onset of a migraine as he spent the rest of the night trying to talk them out of this ridiculous plan.

* * *

Looking at the blazing sky at the “End of days”, he rather missed those simpler times. He’d rather return to those lone, sparse shooting stars crossing by, compared to the innumerable meteors, bringing naught but death and destruction in their wake. Could people wish upon these? How many wishes would that make? Was she, like him, looking at this sky, wishing for everything to return to how it was before? He couldn’t get any news of her, since her final departure from the city; the current situation had unsurprisingly rendered most usual means of communication useless, adding to the fear and anguish of the citizens. It was not hard to guess what she was doing though; she was probably helping as much as she could, in her own, inefficient way. Would it be that she’d accepted their collegial decision, for once… He looked resentfully at the sky:

\- “Empty stars can’t fix our problems; we have to create our own.” Their plan to summon the will of their Star was to be put in motion in a few moments; once created, the newborn divine being would grant them their heart’s desires for peace and stability, in exchange for a significant blood price. Only children would believe that someone would come fix all of their issues for nothing.

* * *

Looking from afar at the Eorzean sky sent ablaze by the fall of the lesser moon, Dalamud, he couldn’t feel any satisfaction, although he should have, in a way: this was after all, the seventh time they managed to cause a minor Rejoining, bringing them halfway through their momentous task. Probably because this scene looked eerily like the “End of days” they had lived eons ago; he could almost hear the supplication of all living things, crying, wishing for the end of their suffering. He could also have felt a bit guilty, as they were inflicting on these people the same anguish they had felt a long time ago, but after millennia of toiling for their duty, watching those grotesque parodies running around in a lacking imitation of life, he was almost numb. He and his remaining companions had laboured for so long for this, lost so much… How could the pain of these malformed entities compare to theirs, to the plight of their people? They couldn’t, wouldn’t go back out of sentiment for these broken, incomplete things. 

He sighed as the haunting visions of their beloved skyline of Amaurot melded with the report of wide-spread destruction in the areas affected by the fall of debris from the man-made star. How many wishes upon these fake pieces of star were made that night, hoping for the return to better days? How many of those desperate souls would resonate with these feelings hailing from a previous era, and  _ remember _ ? How many of them would be claimed by the Light, this impostor Star born to deny them their deepest desire? It didn’t matter. In the name of the one true god, he would do his utmost to grant them the wish from ~~his~~ their heart:

\- “I wish everything would return to these halcyon days...”

  
  
  



End file.
